Controversy over Princeton group flares, fizzles / S.F. man agrees to release records at center of dispute over nominee's past

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, January 12, 2006

Photo: JIM YOUNG

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U.S. Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) shows off a Princeton University cap as he asks questions of Judge Samuel Alito on the third day of Alito's Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for the U.S. Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington January 11, 2006. Democratic party senators have criticized Alito's inability to recall details about his membership � which he listed on a Reagan administration job application in the 1980's � in a conservative organization that opposed the admission of women and minorities at Princeton University. REUTERS/Jim Young 0 less

U.S. Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) shows off a Princeton University cap as he asks questions of Judge Samuel Alito on the third day of Alito's Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for the U.S. Supreme ... more

Photo: JIM YOUNG

Controversy over Princeton group flares, fizzles / S.F. man agrees to release records at center of dispute over nominee's past

Within the span of a lunch break, Kennedy's demands to subpoena documents that could verify whether Alito was lying to the Judiciary Committee about his involvement with Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP) had melted into jokes about Kennedy's absence from the Senate gym.

But not before the White House, the Republican National Committee, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Alito's army of supporters opened a full-court defense to smother the controversy before it could gain momentum.

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The documents in question were quickly released by San Francisco resident William A. Rusher, 82, a founder of the conservative Princeton group and former publisher of National Review.

Rusher could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but he told National Review he hadn't looked at the files in 30 years. "I hope there is nothing discreditable in them," he said. "Of course, Sen. Kennedy can always hope."

The partisan dustup momentarily broke the relative calm of the Senate hearings that began Monday to decide whether Alito should be confirmed to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Kennedy, the liberal lion from Massachusetts, implied Alito's membership meant he harbored bigotry against minorities because of the group's inflammatory writings. For weeks, he has said that Rusher refused to release four boxes of CAP records that are in the Library of Congress, "unless he is told which member(s) or committee(s) are seeking it, and unless he can control the use of the materials released," according to a Dec. 22 letter to committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

Alito had listed his membership in the group, known as CAP, on a 1985 job application to the Reagan Justice Department. After President Bush nominated him to the Supreme Court, Alito said he had no memory of the group.

The high court nominee vigorously disavowed a 1983 essay from the group's magazine, Prospect, that Kennedy on Wednesday read aloud to the committee, called "In Defense of Elitism":

"People nowadays just don't seem to know their place. Everywhere one turns, blacks and Hispanics are demanding jobs simply because they're black and Hispanic, the physically handicapped are trying to gain equal representation in professional sports, and homosexuals are demanding that government vouchsafe them the right to bear children."

California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, the committee's lone woman, egged Kennedy on from the sideline to include a last derogatory line about women. "Finish the last line," she prodded.

Alito disavowed the quotation. "Had I thought that that's what this organization stood for," he said, "I would never associate myself with it in any way."

Dinesh D'Souza, editor of Prospect from late 1983 to 1985, said in an interview that he didn't recall the article and didn't write it.

"It sounds like a parody, but I would have to look at it," D'Souza said in an interview. He said undergraduate magazines often contain sophomoric articles, "and half the time they're produced by a sophomore."

Kennedy demanded that the committee take a vote on a subpoena, warning Specter that he would demand votes "again and again and again" until the matter was resolved. The threat sounded like the opening moves of a filibuster to block Alito's confirmation.

Specter said it was the first time he had heard of the request. "If it's really a matter of importance, you and I see each other all the time; you've never mentioned it to me," Specter told Kennedy. He promised to look into it and twice slammed down the gavel angrily.

Kennedy then held a press conference expressing disbelief that Alito could remember his 67 dissents as a Third Circuit appellate judge, but not his membership in such an inflammatory group.

Almost instantly, the White House and groups backing Alito's nomination let loose a torrent of e-mails, including a December New York Times report that had located the Rusher records at Princeton's library and found no evidence that Alito was actively involved in the group.

After lunch, Specter returned with news. He said the obvious thing to do was to call Rusher.

"Mr. Rusher said he'd be glad to have us look at his records," and had only declined initially because the request had been anonymous, Specter said. "But he said had he received a request from Sen. Kennedy or some member of this committee, he would have made the records available."

Specter said serious requests are usually made in person.

"Sen. Kennedy and I frequent the gym at the same time and talk all the time -- and (he) never, never mentioned it to me, nor did he take it to the ranking member," Specter said. "I share Sen. Kennedy's concern that we have all the facts. ... This is a lifetime appointment, it's a matter of tremendous importance. And I wouldn't want to find on some occasion that something comes to light which would bear on this nomination that we could have found out had we been more vigilant."

Kennedy said he welcomed the records. "I regret I haven't been down in the gym since before Christmas," he said, "so I've missed you down there."

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